Snowflakes
by PrettyBandgirl XD
Summary: Jack was Elsa's childhood friend, but then she couldn't see him anymore and he went away. When she was all grown up, he found her again and promised to stay with her in the tough time she was currently locked in. Then, many years later, Jack faced an enemy that knew all about his relationship with Elsa, the girl he was never supposed to love.
1. The First Meeting

Elsa ran as fast as she could. Snow kicked up beneath her feet. Not once did she look over her shoulder back at the castle she was fleeing from. In a few minutes, search parties would be looking for her. She didn't have very long. _I have to get away_, she thought, _before I hurt anyone else_. She tripped on a tree root hidden under the snow and flew forward.

"Are you alright?"

Elsa lifted her head from the solid ice. She pushed up with her hands, but they slid to her sides. She opened her eyes and saw that she lie on a frozen pond. A boy was sliding over to reach her, leaving a little girl sitting in the snow next to the ice. Two pairs of skates sat beside her. Elsa whimpered as she failed to stand again.

"Hey, calm down." The boy was over her now. He stretched a hand down to her. "Let me help you-"

"Stay away from me!" She screamed. The boy blinked, not having expected that reaction.

"Okay," he cooed after recovering. He held his hands up for her to see. "Here." He handed her the wooden staff he was holding. "Use it to help yourself up." She hesitantly took it and placed it upright, pushing her weight on it. Once on her feet, he took the top end of the staff and started to slide back to the little girl. Elsa still gripped the other end.

"What are you doing?" she asked the little girl, who looked only a few years older than her.

"Jack and I are ice skating," the girl giggled. "He promised he would show me how this winter." Elsa looked at the boy, Jack, who was putting the girl's skates on her feet.

"Would you like to try too?" he asked Elsa. She quickly shook her head. "Suit yourself." He helped the girl up and told her to try and skate before he taught her how. He replaced her in the seat next to Elsa as he set to put his own skates on. "Are you out here alone?" She just ducked her head away from him, not knowing how to answer. He shrugged and put his hand on her head. She turned back to him. The hand was warm. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone as long as you don't stay out in the cold overnight."

A small grin formed on her face before she said, "My name's Elsa." He smiled at her. It was even warmer than his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Elsa. I'm Jack."

"Jack!" Both of their heads swung to the girl on the ice. She stood uneasily in the middle of the pond. Jack rushed onto the ice with his skates still in his hands. He slid on his knees until he was in front of her. Elsa stood and tried to see what had happened. A small crack echoed in the empty space that suddenly surrounded them.

"It's okay. It's okay. Don't look down; just look at me." His voice had died, no longer happy. It was hushed and frightened.

"Jack, I'm scared." The ice cracked more. Elsa could see it reaching out from beneath her feet. _Wait_, she thought, _Jack is older. He's heavier!_

"Jack!" she yelled. "The ice is breaking!" He looked down to see cracks in the ice beneath his own feet.

"I know," he told the girl. "I know." He continued to inch towards her. "But you're gonna be alright. You're not gonna fall in. Uh… We're gonna have a little fun instead." His smile beamed at the girl but was shaky.

"No, we're not!" she cried.

"Would I trick you?"

"Yes, you always play tricks!"

Elsa watched from the sidelines. Her hands were at her heart. Maybe I can use my magic, she wondered. _I can save Jack and the girl! Maybe just this once it would be okay._ Images of her sister flashed through her mind. _No, never again_.

Jack slipped the arch at the end of his staff around the girl and flung her away from the cracked ice. Only Elsa saw that as he did so, he jumped over to the very spot. He and the girl shared a quick smile, but then the ice gave out under his weight.

He yelled as the cold water hit his back. The girl screamed his name. Elsa was running out onto the ice. She fell to her knees by the hole. "Jack!" she called into the water. She held her hand up to the girl when she tried to join Elsa at the hole. "Stay back." Elsa put her hands flat on the ice next to the hole and imagined a block of ice rising up from the water carrying Jack on its top. The only thing that happened, though, was that a sheet of ice spread over the hole, covering it. "No! Jack!"

"Princess Elsa!" Two guards appeared from the trees Elsa had first come from.

"Help him!" she told them, pointing at the ice. One guard motioned to her.

"Princess, move slowly over here. The ice might break."

"You have to help him!" He glanced at the point she gestured to. "Jack fell in!" The second guard went around the pond to grab the other girl from the danger of the weak ice. "Please, you have to help him…" Elsa ran to the guard with her face in her hands. She cried into his shoulder. His hand found the back of her head.

"I apologize, Princess Elsa," he murmured. "If anyone falls in, they drown. The water is too cold for them to move."

"I will bring this one to her home," the second guard called to the one holding Elsa. The second guard held the other girl in his arms. She was still screaming Jack's name.

"Come, Princess. The king and queen have been so worried about you."


	2. Hearing the Cries

Jack frowned as he walked from the village that couldn't see him. The wind lifted him into its arms and carried him over the white land beneath. How long he had been flying, he wasn't sure, but the moment he saw the next village, he had to go down. He walked through the few people still lingering on the street. It was the same outcome as the previous village.

A few years passed, and the only thing he could admit to having done was wander through towns and kingdoms. All he wanted was to fill his blank memory with the look of someone that could see him.

"Please," he prayed, "I don't understand why they can't see me." The moon's shine did not change. "You brought me here!" His cheeks reddened in anger. "Tell me!" With the night remaining unchanged, he sat by a tree, which automatically froze against his back. He tapped his finger on his leg. "What to do..."

A drop of ice slipped down his neck. He blinked and looked up. Another drop landed on his cheek. He wiped at it with his palm and stared at the gleam of it on his skin. Sobs filled the air. Jack stood and searched around him. The wind picked him up and sent him soaring.

"Where are you taking me?" he asked. His speed increased. "Is that- Is that a castle?" A castle with tall spires sat on the edge of a fjord with walls guarding it and a town connected by stone bridges appeared ahead of him. The water was crystal blue; the snow glowed white on the rooftops of every building. Mountains loomed behind the miniature kingdom. The tallest mountain cast shadows on the smaller ones. "Here?" The wind let Jack take over in steering. He followed the sound of the cries that continued to echo around him. They got louder the closer he flew to the castle until he was hovering just outside a window. He opened the window slightly and peaked in. When he saw no one, he entered the room. The wallpaper was light purple with blue and darker purple furnishings. His gaze caught every inch of the chamber, especially the lump on the bed. He bent down and looked at the face half under the covers. It was the face of a young girl with tears falling in her sleep.

"I'm sorry," she whimpered. Jack put his hand on her forehead, but he didn't feel her shiver, which shocked him. Then, he grinned for the first time since the night he emerged from the ice.

"I'll come back tomorrow," he whispered in her ear.

* * *

><p>Elsa sat with her back to the window. Her headband failed to keep the hair from sticking to her face. She shoved the braid off her shoulder and pulled her blue dress back down to her ankles where it refused to stay.<p>

Jack had been at her window that morning the moment he heard the sobs increase. He watched her now, sitting there with her legs pulled up to her chest. There was a knock on the door. She stood up with her hands clutched at her chest. She began to walk to the door when Jack tapped on the glass of her window. He had to test her. She turned slowly and gasped when she saw the man floating outside her window. He smiled at her before putting his finger to his lips. She nodded and continued to the door with the widest eyes.

A tall man with orange hair and a woman with dark hair entered the room. Jack couldn't hear what they were saying, but it looked like they were trying to coax her. She just kept shaking her head while backing away from her. The woman held out her arms and got to her knees. Her face was painful. Elsa resisted. Then the woman said something that caused Elsa to run into the woman's arms and hug her. The man kneeled down and wrapped his arms around the two. Elsa squirmed and shifted her way out of the embrace. She went back to her place at the window. The man and woman let themselves out of the room.

The moment the door closed Elsa jumped up on the cushion lining the windowsill. Jack's smile was still wide. He hadn't expected her to see him. She sat on her knees and opened the window. All she ended up doing was stare at him. His face, she thought. Is that you, Jack? Of course, she knew it was ridiculous to actually ask the strange man if he was the same person as the one that had died in front of her.

"Hi," he chuckled. "I-I heard you crying."

"You _heard_ me?" she asked. She pointed at his feet, childish curiosity flowing through her. "How are you doing that?" He looked down to his dangling feet.

"I'm not sure." He nodded his head toward the room. "Can I come in?" She shifted to the side, and he drifted in. His toes touched the flooring before he finally set his feet down. He leaned on his staff casually. "Why were you crying anyway?" Jack inquired.

"Well-um…" Elsa stuttered. "I-I hurt someone." Jack sat next to her on the cushion, closing the window while he was at it.

"Now how could you have hurt someone?" His smile was small now; his eyes, considerate. She raised her hands with her palms facing up. Jack placed his staff at his feet and went to hold her wrists when she flinched them back to her chest.

"You can't touch," she explained. "They'll hurt you." He reached his hands out carefully, his head bent down slightly, his face telling her words of comfort.

"Don't think about it then." He took her fingers in his. "Just look at me."

_"It's okay. It's okay. Don't look down; just look at me."_ She shook her head to send the memory away.

So Elsa watched his face. She didn't look down and tried not to think about the ice. He flipped her hands over in his, checking them. Then one finger at a time, he slipped her white gloves off. They dropped onto his lap. She held her breath.

"It's okay. Breathe," he told her.

"But I might hurt you too," she whispered. He met her eyes; oh, those scared eyes which were trying so hard not to look down.

He gently put her hands down and took her face between his. His grown hands were just as big if not larger than her head. "Don't you look down. You won't hurt me." He kept eye contact for a few seconds after and then returned to her hands. He played with her small fingers. "See. There's nothing wrong." She lifted her hands and stared at them.

"But-But they hurt Anna." Her sobbing began again. Jack frowned. "They hurt my sister!" She started to grab at the gloves.

"Wait." He lightly put his hands on her shoulders to stop her. "How did they hurt her?"

"I'm not supposed to tell anyone-"

"Well, I'm someone you can trust."

She hesitated before taking one hand and pushing the finger to the glass on the window. Swirls of frost escaped from her finger and spread over the glass. Jack's breathing came in gasps. His eyes covered the pattern of ice. "I hit Anna with my magic," she admitted. Jack turned his face back to her. Her head was hanging with tears slipping off onto her dress. He put his hand beneath her chin and lifted it. Then, without saying a word, he placed one of his own fingers on the glass. The elaborate frost decorated his pane of the window. Elsa's face lit up. "You can do it too!"

"You aren't alone with this magic."

She held out her hand. "My name's Elsa." He took her hand and shook it.

"Jack Frost." Her eyes widened, and her breathing became heavy.

_Jack?_ her mind screamed. Was it the same Jack? It couldn't be. He was dead, but- _The staff is the same. So are his clothes. And his face. _A smile crashed on to her face.

"I want a name with something from the power too!" she cheered. He took her wrist in his hand with her palm facing up. He put his face closer to hers. A single finger went to his lips: the same position he had outside the window. She giggled.

"Okay, my Snow Queen." Shots of warmth were sent down his spine and spread from his chest. "This will be our secret."


	3. The Other Children

"Hey, Jack?" Elsa closed her window behind him. "Why can't anyone else see you?" Jack sat in his usual place at the window. He had been meeting her for about a month now.

"I'm not entirely sure," he answered, placing his staff on the windowsill. "I don't even know how you can see me."

"Doesn't it make you sad?" she asked. Memories of the villages and cities that could not see him mapped across his mind, but his grin didn't falter.

"It used to." He looked out the window at the snow that drifted in the dark. "Now, someone can see me, though." Elsa smiled. Jack looked back to her. He always went back to the pond he woke up at when he left Elsa. Then, he would return to her. Today had been different. A girl was at his pond that morning. All she did was stare at ice before she turned and left. He had followed her to find a tiny village. Of course, he did not want to enter it, knowing no one would be able to see him. After standing in the trees just looking out into the village, Jack lifted off the ground and sped through the air.

He didn't see that as he did so, the population of the village that was outside gazed up.

The rest of the daylight was spent with his head on his knees. Once it got dark, Jack hastily left, not even glancing at the moon.

"I'm sorry I'm late today," Jack told Elsa. She shrugged and trotted over to her bed. She crawled under the covers and gestured to Jack. He hovered over to sit next to her.

"I have tutoring as always tomorrow," she explained. "You know this." He nodded. "So I can't stay up passed when I'm supposed to go to sleep." His eyes frowned, but his never-ending grin stayed alight.

"Well, we'll just have to practice quickly then, won't we?" He watched her brighten up the room. "Come on," he whispered, leaning in and cupping his hands. Elsa did the same. She squeezed her eyes in concentration. "Don't concentrate too hard. Just let it come to you." She took a deep breath. "Let your thoughts crystallize in your hand." She opened her eyes and looked back and forth between him and her cupped hands. "And open." They opened their hands together. In Jack's hand was a small rose with a snowflake in the center. Elsa's eyes were glued to his masterpiece before she noticed what was on her palm.

"Jack, look," she giggled. In her little hand was the shape of a castle. This one was different than the one she lived in, however. This castle was longer vertically and at its highest pier was a miniature snowflake, without any detail. She placed her sculpture on the table beside her bed and then took Jack's to put there as well. Jack touched his finger to both. "Will they stay frozen?" He nodded.

"No," he replied, "but they will stay this way for a little longer than they would have."

"Thank you, Jack." She pulled the blankets up and wriggled into a comfortable position. "I have to go to sleep now, though." Jack moved the platinum blonde hair off her forehead, enjoying every moment with her.

"Get some sleep, Elsa." He was at the window when she sat up quickly and asked if he would be there in the morning. "I will."

* * *

><p>"Jack, do the children in the other kingdoms get to play with your snow?" Elsa asked. Jack balanced on the curved end of his staff. He shrugged.<p>

"The snow goes where it likes," he answered.

"Yeah, but how do the children know how to play with it?"

Elsa's tutor entered the room. "Come, Princess Elsa," the fat woman said. Elsa and Jack followed the woman out of the room and down a long hall to the room where Elsa always did her studying. Jack often saw her sister, Anna, playing by herself on the floor in a random room.

The one thing Jack found interesting about the room Elsa worked in was the portrait of her father at his coronation. He could just picture Elsa, all grown up, holding those precious objects in either hand, a long dress covering the floor around her. He glanced at her and the woman across the room and frowned.

_Grown up_… Elsa was going to grow up, but Jack would stay like this forever.

_Forever_… Jack was going to live on. Elsa wasn't a spirit or anything like that. She was regular human, and she would die like one.

He shook his head. Elsa- young and happy Elsa- was sitting only on the other side of the room, fully alive with not a lick of death.

"Jack? Are you okay?" He blinked and found that it was dark outside. He stood at the foot of her bed.

"Oh! I-I'm sorry. I just- I was daydreaming," he stuttered. She shone her smile at him.

"Are we going to practice today?" she asked. Jack spaced out again, pain on his face. "Jack?"

"What?" He put a hand to his head and sighed. "I'm sorry, Elsa." He opened her window. "I'll be back, okay?" He didn't stay for an answer but just jumped into the breeze that waited for him.

Elsa stumbled out of bed and ran to the window. She peered out and watched Jack soar out of view. With her window still open, she curled up on the cushion beneath the windowsill and fell asleep.


	4. Forgotten Ice Sculptures

Oh, the scream that echoed through the air to Jack. It practically stabbed him in the heart. He knew who it was for and couldn't get there fast enough. When he got there, he knew the scream had only sounded in the mind, not physically. He spotted Elsa- no longer a small child but five years away from being of age- twisted in the sheets of her bed, her hands clutched at her heart, her face contorted. Placing his hand on her shoulder, he shook her gently.

"Elsa," he said, his voice urgent. "Elsa, wake up." He shook her a little harder, and her eyes snapped open. She saw him and jumped up with her arms around him. Sobs racked her entire body, and the tears couldn't flow faster. "Hey, hey, it's okay. What happened?" He held the back of her head, which was pressed against his collarbone. His other hand was spread on her back. His head rested on the top of hers.

"It was such a terrible dream, Jack!" she cried. "It was just so terrible." She turned her face in to breathe him in.

"Shh. Calm down." He caressed her hair in its messed up braid. "Tell me what it was about."

"M-My parents died. I-I hurt Anna again," she lied. Like every night, she went to sleep thinking about Jack and ended up having a dream where he was somehow involved. This time it had turned into a nightmare, something she had not experienced since before Anna was born. Without saying anything else, she began to sink to the floor with Jack still holding her. She ended up on one side of him, still trying to clutch him in the awkward position. He was in the situation where he should have been leaning on something but could not and had to keep himself suspended. He picked his staff up from next to him, where he had dropped it when he entered. He lifted it into the air and watched the tip glow. Snow shot up and covered the floor. Snowflakes drifted down and landed in their hair.

"Hey, Elsa?" He moved his shoulder up and down to gesture for her to look up. When she finally did, he asked, "Do you wanna build a snowman?"

She replied without looking at him. "Yes, Jack."

And so they did.

But she would never tell Jack about what the dream was actually about.

She had been in a white ball gown standing alone in the ballroom. Jack wearing his usual clothes appeared in the center of the room, his staff leaned on a wall behind him. He held his hand out to her, a hand that she took. With one hand on her waist and the other in her own hand, Jack moved back and forth to dance with her. She could feel her heart pounding, the largest smile on her face, not a care about anything else. Then, everything grew dark. It rose up from the floor and covered the walls. Jack brought Elsa to him in a protective way. His staff was suddenly in his hand, stretched out in front of them. Elsa had one arm around Jack and the other against his chest. She felt a rush of fear in the pit of her stomach. She could feel her body temperature drop. Jack gasped, and her head snapped up to look at him. Elsa remained standing as Jack collapsed. Snow started to fall in dark around them. "Jack?" He lie still with ice etching his skin. Dead.

And somewhere in the darkness, a deep laugh bounced off the walls.

* * *

><p>Jack watched Elsa crying. He knelt down where she sat at the door. "I'm sorry about your parents, Elsa," he said hoarsely. When she just kept going, he put a hand of comfort on her head.<p>

But his hand fell right through her.

His hand zipped back to him. His chest heaved, trying to get the air in. Eyes glossy, Jack tried again to touch Elsa. His hand went straight through. "No!" he screamed. His knees were bent beneath him. He put his head on the ground and held a tight grip on his hair. "Elsa!" He kept shaking his head back and forth. "Elsa!"

After a while, Elsa stood up and climbed into bed. Jack followed her desperately. He was on his knees next to her bed. He clawed at her arm to only end up landing on the blankets. "Please, please," he begged. "Elsa." He gave up and plopped onto the floor. He was crying now.

A week passed before Jack left. Elsa still could not see him. Forgotten ice sculptures were beginning to melt on her bedside table. "The other children," he muttered one morning as Elsa woke up. "I'm going to go around the rest of the world and bring snow to the children. Maybe I can teach them how to play in it." He opened the window and hopped out, too sad to turn around for one last look at Elsa, the girl that turned at the sound of her window to see a man appear and then disappear just as quickly.


	5. How to Play With Snow

_**Three years later**_

"Anna doesn't knock on my door anymore." Nowadays, Elsa was always sitting by the window, looking out, waiting to see Jack. "I'm truly alone. I can't see Anna; I'll hurt her. You're gone, and so are Mama and Papa." She leaned her head on the cool glass. "Come back. Please, I;m faling apart. This sumer I will be of age." She glanced down at her hands. "I can't let them see. I have to remain the good girl my father meant for me to be."

* * *

><p>Jack sprinkled the village with flurries. He watched the children jump up to their windows. It was time to put his three yearlong experiment to bed. This was the last village he had left to test. The others around the world passed his assessment, but would this village?<p>

The children ran out of their houses and automatically scooped snow into their hands, molded spheres out of it, and then chucked the orbs at each other. "Success!" he cheered, jumping up and landing on the curved end of his staff. he thrust his hand in the air as he did so. All around the bottom of his staff children were playing in the snow. White balls flew across the village hitting anyone that was nearby.

A tall girl, a woman actually, was walking by the activity with a basket of groceries. Her hair was tied up on the back of her head, but some strands fell from their place as one of the balls of ice collided with the side of her face. The basket of already bruised apples and dying vegetables dropped to the powder spreading over the ground. At first, she just stood there looking shocked with a hand holding her red and probably stinging cheek. Then, she turned toward the children that were still, waiting for punishment. A ball of snow flew and hurdled straight into one child's chest. Propped up on his elbows, the child and his playmates started laughing and continued their game. The woman, still with white flecks decorating her dark hair, abandoned her groceries and joined.

Jack watched with such a pleasant feeling in his chest that it swirled his stomach. A man stopped in his tracks at the sight of the woman playing with the children. He shouted a name, no doubt hers, and ran up next to her. Smiles were exchanged between them before returning to the game.

Snowball fights. Jack would remember his game when the rest of the world forgot. His task to show children how to play in his snow was complete. So... _Now what? _he wondered. The wind lifted him up and he laughed, knowing his friend would know where he should be.

But he put all his trust in the wind and did not watch where he was going until...


	6. A Girl and Her Childhood Friend

Jack ended up flying into something hard and cold. He slipped off the surface and fell down, down, and down some more. There was a crash and the pieces of what looked like glass spread across the ground. A woman appeared at the top of the staircase he had landed on. His leg was strewn over the side where the railing had been hit and shattered. When he saw her, he automatically went into defense mode and moved to hover over the woman. As her eyes followed him instead of staying on what was broken, Jack shoved the curved end of his staff around her small waist.

"Who are you?" he interrogated. In his peripheral vision, he inspected where he was. Of course, it was the very reason he was questioning her. It was made of ice. The woman, he saw, was hardly one at all. Her dress was blue and shone with frost. Her hair sat on her shoulder in a messy braid. Her eyes were wide; her mouth, open. "Answer me." His voice grew louder until he was practically screaming at her. "Who are you? How can you see me?" She just stared at the pure anger on his face, afraid, before she spoke.

"I can see you because I believe in my powers," were her words. Jack's staff landed on the ground with a loud echo. "I couldn't see you because I couldn't stop doubting myself." Her eyes were obviously sad, but she smiled anyway. A tear landed at the corner of her mouth. It had fallen from Jack's face.

"Elsa?" She nodded. "C-Can you really see me again?" he croaked. She reached up and pulled him down, touching his soaked face with her hands.

"Yes, Jack. Yes, and I'm so sorry." Her arms were quickly around his waist. He was frozen at first, and then he returned her hug with his arms around her shoulders. They stayed that way for a few minutes: a girl and her childhood friend.

"As it turns out, the only reason I can see you is because I believe that there was someone like me, or that I wasn't alone," Elsa explained. She and Jack sat on the top steps of the staircase he had fallen on. "So, when I lost my parents, I felt like I couldn't have any control over my powers without them there. I thought they had been the ones keeping me from hurting anyone again. I felt so alone, despite knowing you were near me. I lost belief in the thought of my powers or my own existence."

"I thought you didn't want to see me," Jack admitted. "I didn't realize that someone had to truly believe in me to see me. It explains a lot."

"What have you been doing all this time?" Jack only smiled in reply. His staff, which he held in one hand, glowed at its tip. A breeze shifted his hair and lifted him off the ground. "Jack," she warned, "no." His smile grew so large he had to close his eyes. She took a mental picture of his happy expression for safe keeping. "Jack, I-" Her feet left the ice flooring. She dangled in the air. They shot up through the hole Jack had made in the ceiling, trails of frost and snowflakes following them. The giant mountain with the castle of ice was left behind as Jack and Elsa flew through the cold sky. He swung her up and onto his back. Her ankles banged against his.

"Look down, Elsa!" Jack shouted over the wind. She peered down and saw the white covered land below them. The snow sat glistening in the cold sunset with colors like purple, pink, and orange.

"It's beautiful," she murmered. She lifted her head to feel the cool air on her scalp. "Jack the snow has changed since you began to spread it. I noticed it earlier today. It's gentler, softer, and... prettier." She put her head down on Jack's back. "I'm so glad you returned."

Jack waited to say anything. After three long years, he and Elsa were smiling again. They were together, and she was free of the fear of her powers. He hoped it would remain like this. They could live in her castle, away from those that might cause her pain of fright. They would be happy, wouldn't they?

"Elsa, I taught them," he told her as he landed on his frozen pond. "I taught the children how to play in the snow." She spun around from behind him. Her heels clacked on the ice.

"You remember that?" she asked.

"Of course."

"What did you teach them?" At that, Jack grinned. He held out his hand and his famous white orb formed hovering over his palm.

"This." He swung his arm and sent the snowball flying into Elsa's shoulder. She automatically understood and held out her own hand, making her very own snow. The two chucked their snowballs at each other until they were lying on the glass-like surface of the pond, out of breath.

"That was fun, Jack," Elsa breathed.

"It wasn't very fun when no one could see me," he said. "It really is a fun game."

"A snowball fight." Elsa stared at the sky. She caught herself from falling asleep by whispering, "Jack, could you take me back to my castle?"


	7. A Frozen Heart and Frozen Crown

Jack held onto one of Elsa's hands as they swung around in circles with their other arm out. Frost and snowflakes shifted with each step they took. Elsa was singing, and Jack was listening with half-closed eyes.

"Let it go. Let it go. And I'll rise like the break of dawn. Let it go. Let it go. That perfect girl is gone."

She was beautiful, Jack decided. That scared little girl had grown up in to this woman that glowed with radiance and pride. It was no surprise to him that he could not recognize her when he first saw her. She was completely different now from the broken child he had had to leave. He joined in her song: "Let the storm rage on. The cold never bothered me anyway."

They were lying on the ice floor, staring up at the chandelier, with heads vertical from each other when Elsa jumped. "Did you hear that?" she asked. Jack flew over to the staircase.

"Elsa," he began, "someone's here." She met him at the stairs and stepped down them to the next staircase. That is where she saw Anna. "Is that your sister?"

"How is she here? No, _why _is she here?" Elsa muttered. "Jack?"

"I'll be right here."

"Anna..."

* * *

><p>"You kind of set off an eternal winter everywhere," Anna explained.<p>

"Everywhere?" Jack could see that Elsa was starting to panic.

"But it's okay. You can just unfreeze it."

"No, I can't. I-I don't know how." Snow was already starting to drift around her.

"Elsa, you have to calm down," Jack advised. "I can help you unfreeze it. Just don't panic."

"Sure you can. I know you can."

"Anna, your optimism isn't needed. You'll only make it worse!" Jack kept to Elsa's side.

"Anna, please," Elsa seemed to beg. "You'll only make it worse! There's so much fear! You're not safe here."

"Anna, watch out!" Jack reached for Elsa's sister as the ice flew for her, but he could not do anything. And so, it hit Anna in the heart. He saw that Elsa did not notice and called to her. To Elsa, his voice faded in, not having been there as she panicked.

* * *

><p>Once the giant snowman had taken Anna and her friend out of the castle, Elsa had sunk to the floor with her head on her knees. Jack could see her as a child again, curled up in the corner of her room. "I hurt her, Jack. I hurt Anna. I didn't mean to. I never meant to." She babbled on like that as Jack sat with her and hugged her.<p>

"It's okay," he assured her. "She's in good hands. Just calm down."

"I didn't see it. Did I hit her in the heart? Tell me I didn't." Jack was about to reply when he slipped. His arms fell through Elsa with a faint blue glow connecting them. With her head still down, she asked again: "Did I hit her in the heart, Jack?"

"Elsa," was all he could mutter.

"Jack?" She finally lifted her head and looked to each spot in the room. "Jack, where did you go? Jack?" He stood hopelessly beside her, unaware of what to do.

_"My Snow Queen."_

He stretched out his fingers in Elsa's direction. Ice crystals flowed over to her and formed on top of her head in a circular shape of frozen flowers- a make-shift crown. She reached her hand up and touched the crown.

"I know you're here, but I need to see you again. And I need to not hurt Anna again. I have to control my powers."


	8. Unwanted Visitors

"Get it together."

Elsa paced on the top floor of her castle. The light of the castle had turned red in her stress. Jack sat atop his staff to watch her.

"Control it. Don't feel."

"Elsa, the walls," Jack tried to mention.

"Don't feel." she ceased to notice by herself what Jack couldn't bring to her attention. "Don't feel. Don't feel!" Ice grew and cracked up the walls of her castle, the uncontrollable frost.

* * *

><p>"They're here, Elsa."<p>

Elsa had already noticed, however. She was quickly at the castle entrance, peeking through a crack in the door to the outside. She recognized Anna's fiance, Hans. With a flick of her wrist, her snow giant activated and worked to ward off the unwanted visitors. She closed the doors just as two men got hit into some snow, not wanting to see if she would cause injuries.

She rubbed her arms on her way to the staircase. She touched the railing, which Jack had fixed. She lingered on the last step, wondering if she should go outside and give herself up. She was the queen afterall. Perhaps the men were just there to talk sense into her like Anna.

But she had hurt Anna.

"Elsa, there are two men coming towards the doors."

Elsa turned to see Jack behind her. He grabbed her elbow and pulled. Her eyes strayed on the doors for a few seconds longer before picking up her dress and rushing up the stairs after Jack.

The doors burst open as she reached the second flight, and two men with crossbows ran in. The lights on the top floor were now yellow. Jack figured it was because of her fear.

"We got her," one of the men said rather triumphantly when they caught up to Elsa.

"No, please," she pleaded. The man that had spoken lifted his crossbow and shot an arrow at her. Jack stood in front of her. As the arrow passed through him and Elsa's hands went up to guard her face, the tip of his staff glowed and a small shield made of ice rose from the ground. She looked up to see the arrow extending from Jack's spine.

"None of you can hurt me," he hurried to say. She swtiched her gaze to the men that had moved.

"Stay away," she warned. Ridges of ice were sent towards the men that persisted to dodge them. One man was on either side of her now. The first one that moved was the one she trapped up on the wall with spears of ice, one spear threatening his throat. Jack stood ready to aid her again, but she did not need it. As the second man moved, she trapped him between two ice barriers before sending a small wall of ice his way. The door to her balcony was broken through.

"Elsa, what are you doing?" Jack asked. "He's going to fall!"

"Queen Elsa!" Hans advanced on the room. "Don't be the monster they fear you are!"

Her magic on both men halted. "Elsa!" Jack yelled as Hans moved the crossbow of the man on the wall. The arrow fired and shot clean through the ice wire holding up the chandelier. "Elsa, run!" Jack pushed on her back. She toppled over but picked herself back up just in time to get away. The impact, though, knowcked her out.

"We shall take the queen back to Arendelle," Hans announced as he lifted Elsa into his arms. Jack poked the prince.

"I'm here just in case you plan to do anything that might hurt her," he hissed. "I won't let you harm Elsa."


	9. Crumbling Walls

"Elsa, wake up."

Her head moved back and forth until her eyes opened. She saw Jack beside her, hovering cross-legged with one end of his staff on the ground. Lifting herself from the hard stone serving as her cot, Elsa let the blanket covering her fall.

"They brought you back to Arendelle," Jack explained. He was about to express how furious he was that the men had put her in a prison cell when she jumped up and tried making her way to the window on one of the walls. Though, she was quickly yanked back by the containers holding her hands and their chains. "They don't want you using magic." She maneuvered herself to see out of the window better. Jack stayed where he was, in his position, and watched.

"No," she whispered. "What- What have I done?" They both turned to the door as it opened. Hans walked in with a lantern in his hand. Jack, forever angry with the prince, planted his feet on the ground. Hans put the lantern down, and Elsa asked him, "Why did you bring me here?" They couldn't have just left her alone?

"I couldn't just let them kill you," Hans replied, wrapping his arms across his chest in the cold room.

"I wouldn't have let them," Jack mumbled.

"But I'm a danger to Arendelle," Elsa reasoned. She glanced between Hans and her hands as she said so. "Get Anna."

"She isn't here," Jack told her just as Hans said, "Anna has not returned." She gazed back out the window.

"Elsa, don't panic. It's very likely she's with that friend of hers," Jack deducted.

"If you would just stop the winter," Hans requested. "Bring back summer." Jack scoffed. "Please."

"Don't you see? I can't." Elsa responded. "You have to tell them to let me go."

"I will do what I can."

As Hans walked out and shut the door behind him, Jack snapped, "I don't believe him." He faced Elsa. "Let's get you out of here." He put the top of his staff on one of the containers holding her hands and his hand on the other. They grew colder until the metal was designed with frost.

Snow started rampaging around outside.

"Jack, what do we do?"

Elsa was staring out the window. Jack's ice combined with her terror on the metal cuffs.

"We have to get you out of here," Jack answered. "I don't trust that man."

"Hans?" she asked. He nodded. "He's Anna's fiancé. He wouldn't—He can't do anything wrong."

"I still want to get you out of here. They locked you up, Elsa." She turned to him, shoulders hunched.

"It's only to protect the kingdom."

"Elsa, look outside," he demanded. His voice was rough. "Keeping you here like this is not the best way to do that if they really wanted to keep everyone safe. Look at you." He gestured to her, and she looked down to herself. "You're terrified in here. What good does that do _anyone_?" In reply, Elsa gazed back out the window, slightly surprised to see that the storm had grown stronger. Crackling noises sounded over her, and she watched as frost covered the ceiling and walls around her. "It's time. Try pulling." She started to tug on the frozen chains. Guards' voices spoke at the door. Jack gasped and hurried to it, freezing the door hinges. "Hurry!"

As Elsa pulled harder, the walls started to crumble. Jack ran from the door to help her just when the walls and ceiling caved in. The door burst open, but Elsa was already in the blizzard. Jack turned back and peered through the snow to see the disappointed face of Hans.

"You really can't trust him, Elsa," he muttered, worried.

"Jack, now what?" Elsa had to yell. The storm raged in all directions. She spun around to find him. She grabbed his wrist. "They know where my castle is!"

"We'll find you somewhere to go, or we'll fix the situation here." He gripped her shoulders. "Trust me, El-"

"Jack!" The wind grabbed at him and tossed him up into the air.

"What are you doing?" he hollered at the cyclone. "Put me down!"

Elsa fought the icy gusts hitting her and searched for Jack at the same time, twisting in any direction to find him. A figure motioned toward her, too big to be Jack. She began to run away. "Queen Elsa, you can't run from this!" Hans screamed.

"Just take care of my sister," she told him, ready to keep going. Jack spotted her from the sky and plunged to the frozen water.

"Your sister?"

"Don't listen to him, Elsa!" Jack called.

"She returned from the mountain weak and cold. She said that _you_ froze her heart!"

"No," Elsa whispered. Jack landed by her side.

"Don't listen to him. You can't listen to him."

"I tried to save her, but it was too late. Her skin was ice; her hair turned white." She didn't want to look at him, but found her eyes meeting his. Jack said nothing else, just stood there. "Your sister is dead! Because of you."

"No, no." Elsa stumbled and turned away from him before falling to her knees, the wind stopping and snow halting in the air as she hit the icy ground. She heard the sound of screeching metal but did not care for it at all.

"Elsa, watch out!" she heard Jack shout.

Her mind was full of thoughts, old and new.

_I hurt Anna._

_I can't ever use my magic again._

_How could I hurt her?_

_Anna!_

_What have I done?_

_Mama. Papa._

"No!"


	10. Keeping Cold

_It's been many years since I last saw Elsa. Now, here the Tooth Fairy is telling me she has the memories of everyone, including myself. Does that mean she has Elsa's too?_

Jack found nothing wrong with being in Antarctica, except that he could think of all his wrongs there.

The air was cold, not that it bothered him. Jack had only ever been reminded from it, reminded of someone he had once loved.

He ran to the ledge of a snow-covered rock and thrust his arm to throw the tooth capsule away. How could he do such a thing though? He ruined his relationship with the other guardians to get the memories. He risked and accomplished the destruction of Easter. What else was there to do but remember?

"I thought this might happen." Pitch came up behind him. "They never really believed in you." Jack was surprised at first to hear the Nightmare King behind him but then just grew with anger. "I was just trying to show you that, but I understand."

"You don't understand anything!" Jack yelled, shooting ice toward Pitch and jumping to the other side of him. How could Pitch understand what he had gone through? The others hated him. He was supposed to be the next guardian, the next child savior, the next person to bring children happiness. He was supposed to finally understand what he had been born for, why the moon had brought him out of the ice so long ago! How could Pitch possibly understand? He would never know what Jack had lost.

All the children he had taught, invisibly played with, watched grow up. The village near his pond disappearing in the single blow of a horrible storm. A town rising from his snow and cities popping up around the world. Arendelle sinking into the fjord and that very water consuming the land only to back away years later, destroying land to reveal land.

"They'll _fear_ both of us, and that's not what I want," Jack explained. Pitch only wanted darkness, nightmares, fear. Jack wanted happiness, a happiness he once had, a happiness that could spread through everyone. That way… everyone could be happy. No sadness. No cries in the night. Just laughs. "For the last time, leave me alone."

"Very well. You want to be left alone," Pitch sneered. _Yes, I do. _"Done, but first…"

Now Jack and Baby Tooth were stranded, stuck in a crevice in the cold snow, _his_ snow, of course.

When Baby Tooth had been thrown, he felt terrible. Here was a victim of Pitch's attack on the Tooth Palace that he had _saved_. And there she flew.

Then, there was his staff. The first and only object he actually owned besides his clothes. He hadn't wanted to part with it; Baby Tooth, however, was more important. But then Pitch broke it. His staff in pieces… It lie beside him in two. His chest hurt. The layers of frost that had been preserving the ancient wood, gone. The first ice that he touched it with, almost like a lost child, gone.

Baby Tooth sneezed.

"Sorry," Jack sighed. "All I can do is keep you cold."

_"Jack, there's something I need to tell you."_

_ Elsa stood in front of him, nervous with her hands clasped in front of her._

_ "What is it?" Jack was getting worried. Elsa had been more distant lately._

_ "I- I'm getting married, Jack." He shouldn't have been surprised. Elsa was a queen in need of a king. Anna couldn't rule even though she had Kristoff, she would never unless something happened to Elsa._

_ "Oh?" he asked, trying to seem happy and curious. "T-To who?" Dang it. He had stuttered._

_ "He's a good person, Jack. We've been conversing for a while now. I trust him." He simply nodded. He cursed himself for not congratulating her, but then, something happened. It was something that shouldn't have. Something that was impossible to the people who could not see him._

_She kissed him._

_His chest was warm as his face would have been. Everywhere she was connected to him was heated, but it could only be the opposite for her._

_When she broke away, her eyes were squeezed shut and her teeth were clenched. And then she shivered._

He could only keep one cold.

"Pitch was right," he exhaled. "I make a mess of everything." Baby Tooth moved into his pocket and made the move for Jack to see who he originally was.

_I was human, _he thought_. I was a person. I had a life, a sister. I saved my sister. I made the villagers laugh. I made them happy. I-I brought happiness to children before. Wait, I was _alive_. That means that… I died._

Not just that. Not just that.

There was another voice mixed in, entwined with these memories.

_"Stay away from me!"_

His hand on a small head that he would lean on for years to come.

_"My name… Elsa."_

He had known Elsa! He had met Elsa! And all before he had died and become the Jack he knew himself as now! _This,_ he understood, _explains_ _why she was surprised when she first heard my name. Oh, that- I must have caused her pain. She-She saw me die._

A smoky air lifted from his dark staff a few feet away. Pitch's voice came from it.

"So you finally know," he snickered. "You knew Queen Elsa long before she ruled. Think about it, Jack. All those years of the fear of hurting her family. All those years of crying in her sleep, or of the night you heard her silent screams. It was all _me_. _I _was the darkness in her head, the monster under bed, the uncontrollable danger of her powers."

"It was you," Jack mumbled. "Why?"

"She was my favorite child. She had such a tormented soul. I gave her nightmares about her parents, her sister, and even you."

"Me?"

"Especially you. She loved you, Jack, and I destroyed her. I was there with her from the moment she first hurt Princess Anna to the time she sunk to her knees in the blizzard. I was even there when Princess Anna died and her daughter kept her father and aunt from going insane. Yes, I enjoyed giving her nightmares as well."

"Be quiet," Jack snarled.

"Were you there when Queen Elsa died? I was."

Jack flinched as he remembered Elsa on her deathbed. Her niece at her side along with Elsa's son. Jack stood at the head of the bed, watching her, missing the child he had first found, not even knowing she had been in his life when it was still a _life_.

"Do you remember her last words, Jack?"

_"Jack, I'm scared."_


	11. Acceptance (Small Epilogue)

Jack jumped. A vision? He saw Baby Tooth and erupted into smiles.

"I had a family. I had a sister! I saved her!" He giggled a little. _I saved Elsa too. Forget all the sad stuff. I saved her too._ "That's why you chose me." He gazed up at the moon, forever the administrator of his second life. "I'm-I'm a Guardian."


End file.
